BDSM MEDIA NEWS!!!!
September 30, 2012
All Is Fair in Bondage and Book Sales
Source: Theatlanticwire.com. - The Atlantic Wire - USA
USA - There is no end to what the Fifty Shades erotic book series might do, even as we thought or rather hoped the fervor had faded
, as least somewhat, for other fare. Still, there are 32 million copies sold in the U.S. They're not going anywhere, yet. And while they stay, we have: Fifty Shades merchandise,
(including baby clothes), a much-hyped Fifty Shades movie,
Fifty Shades music, hardware stores reportedly selling out of rope, nightstand Bibles in a British hotel replaced with copies of the book, so-themed travel packages
, and numerous other titles
, hoping to capture some of the book-sales action. Now there's a Fifty Shades-inspired "Grey Area" at Times Square sex shop Gotham City, reports Mathew Katz of DNAinfo
. (This idea might be the most reasonable one yet).They're not the first. Other sex shops have noticed response to the book and hopped on the marketing bandwagon already, as
Andrea Burzynski wrote in a story for Reuters: "Manhattan sex shop Babeland co-founder Claire Cavanah said after the final book in the trilogy was released in the United States in January, customers 'were asking for specific toys that they had read about,' but when the trilogy was re-released in April, "the product sales started to really spike." This meant increased sales of "riding crops, restraints, blindfolds, and spanking powder," among other things. Babeland offers book-themed kits and workshops, too.
Now Gotham City is offering all the staples: rope, handcuffs, and whips, plus the three novels and "light playthings" ("pleasure tape," gags, muzzles, and straightjackets). They've also hired their only female staffer to help the new customers, mostly women entranced by the saga of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey and "interested in the fetishistic sex of the books." She's there to give advice and support to these new clients as they "navigate the world of BDSM, which stands for bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadism/masochism," writes Katz. Because, well,
Reading all three novels in the saucy trilogy doesn't make you a BDSM sexpert, said [the unnamed female employee]- the store had to stop selling leather floggers because of housewives who hit their husbands too hard. They've switched to rubber ones for the time being.She has not read the books, but credits them with bringing more women into the store. Publishing business, this may be a first.
For those less likely to frequent sex shops, even ones with a "Grey Area," Barnes and Noble has decided to offer the books as "subway reading," per a recent tweet from
Anna Holmes. The books have also been seen for sale in bodegas, grocery store checkout aisles, and positioned next to similarly popular fare for younger readers, per the photo above. Meanwhile, over at Reuters, the book has spawned the following editor's note: "Please be advised that there are sexual references throughout" on today's (pretty vanilla) article on the subject of Fifty Shades mania.
As for how many more shades we will endure, E.L. James is done writing the series, she says, but she's at work on something else, and it's an "erotic tale," too. Can't. Wait.
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